Texas Tech football: Alan Bowman, offense struggle in loss to Iowa State
The Texas Tech football team fell 40-31 to Iowa State on Saturday as quarterback Alan Bowman had his worst game of the year, no thanks to his shaky offensive line.
After one of the most frustrating games in recent memory, Texas Tech football fans are likely to be upset about Saturday’s 40-31 loss to Iowa State. But while many are certain to crow about the disparity in penalties (10 for 105 yards against the Red Raiders; 4 for 25 yards against the Cyclones), the blame for this loss falls squarely at the feet of Kliff Kingsbury and the Texas Tech offense.
Despite receiving a special teams touchdown on a blocked punt in the 1st quarter and a defensive touchdown on a strip sack in the 4th quarter, the Red Raider offense mustered just 17 points on the afternoon. Unable to handle the ISU pass rush, Texas Tech amassed just 363 total yards and 30 rushing yards against the ISU cloud defense.
Quarterback Alan Bowman looked like a true freshman for the first time in his career throwing three interceptions (one returned for a touchdown) and completing just 33 of 57 passes for 333 yards and a touchdown. For most of the afternoon, the ISU blitz got to Bowman forcing him to throw the ball off his back foot or make mistakes such as two intentional grounding penalties (the one that resulted in a safety to put ISU up 33-31 in the middle of the 4th quarter was the turning point in the game).
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It was a strange offensive game plan by the Red Raiders and Kilff Kingsbury who looked to be grasping at straws for most of the afternoon. Despite the intense ISU pressure on Bowman, Kingsbury repeatedly called slow-developing play action pass plays that made his quarterback a sitting duck in the pocket.
What’s more, Kingsbury reverted to a habit that many thought he had kicked this season; abandoning the ground game. Tech ran the football only 24 times on the afternoon despite not being down by more than one score until the final three minutes of the game.
What’s more, on the final six drives of the game, a Texas Tech running back carried the football only once (a Ta’Zhawn Henry 5-yard run with 10:40 to play). Though the ground game was far from dominant Saturday, Kingsbury should have stayed with it to keep ISU from being able to blitz Bowman with impunity.
Unfortunately, the failures of the offense wasted another impressive showing by the Texas Tech defense. David Gibbs’ defense held Iowa State to 422 yards, scored a touchdown and sacked ISU QB Brock Purdy three times on the afternoon.
In the end, ISU defensive coordinator Jon Heacock flummoxed Kliff Kingsbury for the third consecutive season as the Cyclones continued their three-year winning streak in the series. Certainly, Red Raider fans will be angry about the hand-full of controversial penalties that went against the Red Raiders in Ames, but the game was lost because once again, Kliff Kingsbury could not figure out how to solve the ISU cloud defense and because Alan Bowman finally looked like a true freshman.
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Texas Tech returns home next week for the first of what will be a season-defining home stand against Oklahoma and Texas. At 5-3 overall and 3-2 in the league, the Red Raiders can still make significant noise in the Big 12 and far exceed preseason expectations, though they now look to be out of the conference title race.